Lavin at St Johns

[redpony]

I suspect that there are some high quality competent coaches available at the end of the season. We don't have to settle for BCG. Virtually any coach would be better than the clown we currently have. Unbelievable that he got a contract with apparently no performance milestones regarding W-Ls and placement in CUSA.

GO PONIES!!!

[papawasamustang]

Steve Lavin is doing an awesome job @ St. Johns. #2 recruiting class in the nation so far for 2011. A lot of people didn't like the hire & said it wouldn't work. There's no doubt in my mind that a BCG type couldn't come into SMU & produce the similar results.

http://basketballrecruiting.rivals.com/ ... ID=1156765

It's not going to work long-term for Lavin, cause like Doh, he's a freakin awful coach. Made some key assistant hires, and certainly reached out to the local NYC hoops community.

It doesn't matter if it works out long term for Lavin. He has already made a huge impact on the program & community. He has given the program new life.

You just described what a good HC does. They hire outstanding assistants & make a quick impact in the community. Doh need neither.


As for BCG, I just watched the Maryland football search up close, and saw first hand what a guy like Mike Leach or BCG does to a board of regents. When push comes to shove, some politico in academia is going to black ball BCG at SMU, I'd bet on it. Beyond that, some of you need to examine what he did at Kentucky, and pull off the blinders. In his entire tenure he offered a grand total of one kid that was a high major. That's not a matter of being over one's head, it's a matter of piss-poor evaluation. Basically, you guys are telling me to invest in another flame-out, who actually had a worse run at UK than Doh had at UNC? Only this time, let's make sure the flame-out is a wicked alcoholic, awesome.

BCG is a major upgrade over the current HC. What does that tell you about the current state of SMU men's hoops?

[b_caesar]

Maybe we could find a hot unknown like what Tulsa seemed to do for a while there every 3-4 years, who then gets headhunted away to a big major after going deep with a cinderella or winning the NIT? And then KEEP him instead of letting him go.

[Pony_Fan]

He was hired in March of 2010 and they are already 11-3 and just beat Nationally ranked Georgetown on National TV tonight?...who says you can't turn a program around quickly and St Johns had similar recruiting hurdles to SMU in a big city environment.

Lavin beats Duke over the weekend, they are 4-5 in BE though. Lost the previous 3 games.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=310302599

93-78

[Mitch McConnell]

Right but that clown Keady is on his bench.

[Pony_Fan]

Right but that clown Keady is on his bench.

Hmm, you mean the successful ex-Purdue coach - i'd say he had a good career boss.

[Harry0569]

Good for the Johnies and Lavin. It'll be interesting to see if Lavin can keep it up, and turn SJU into the program it was in the 80s. At UCLA, he provided extreme highs and lows, but little consistency. With 9 kids coming in next year (#2 recruiting class behind UK's star-studded class), Lavin has the chance to turn SJU into a perennial BE contender

[Mitch McConnell]

Right but that clown Keady is on his bench.

Hmm, you mean the successful ex-Purdue coach - i'd say he had a good career boss.

Hate him

[RGV Pony]

Lavin beats Duke over the weekend, they are 4-5 in BE though. Lost the previous 3 games.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=310302599

93-78

Duke was like 8-27 shooting in the first half. Seems like they have a stinker like that every year. Ga Tech last year and Wake the year before I think come to mind.

[ponyscott]

Right but that clown Keady is on his bench.

Hmm, you mean the successful ex-Purdue coach - i'd say he had a good career boss.

Hate him

Ha ha...figured you would as he was against the Gophers...right?

[ponyscott]

This is an interesting article from the LA papers as supposedly Lavin learned a lesson and maybe Doh learned from Steve as the UCLA and North Carolina HC positions had similar backlash for both coaches early on:


http://www.dailybreeze.com/sports/ci_17200749



Lavin might have sorted things out had he been given the opportunity to coach another season or two.

This was not going to happen. Not with Pete Blackman on campus.

Blackman was a Bruin forward as an undergraduate who played in the shadow of former Inglewood High star Gary Cunningham at the other forward. He is the vice chancellor who spearheaded the building and retrofitting of much of UCLA's physical plant.

He also was the impatient power behind the throne who triggered Lavin's firing.

One of Lavin's talking points as Bruin coach was the youth and energy and work ethic of his staff.

Pete Newell had another view.

"Steve needs a veteran (coach as an) assistant," he said from day one.

Wooden said the same thing.

Lavin resisted change because he resisted firing friends. Several years after leaving UCLA, he admitted that was a mistake and said there would have been changes before the next season had he remained on the job.

This is of interest now because Lavin, when he was hired by St. John's this season, turned around and hired Mike Dunlap and Gene Keady.

[Mitch McConnell]

Oh, F Keady. He's such a [deleted]. Freakin combover is ridiculous. His scowl is a joke. And he tries to come off as a nice guy.

I was all over for him years especially at the NCAA in 1995 in Austin when Purdue came down there. I heckled his [deleted] from the opening tap vs. Wisc. Green Bay. The cool thing about it was that he got T'd up. LOL.

But he was such a jerk in the 1990 NCAA tournament when they lost to Texas on that shot with 1 second and he's ripping the officials saying, "I got kids crying their eyes out because officials don't know the difference between a block and a charge.'' Funny thing was when Penders came up, he said, "I thought the officials were great.''

Gophers did get the last laugh. In his final game at Mackey Arena, Minnesota beat the Boilermakers.

F U Keady.

[SoCal_Pony]

Keady became the winningest coach in school history with 512 victories and second winningest coach in Big Ten Conference history, only behind former rival, Bob Knight, and was the Big Ten Coach of the Year seven times.

[Harry0569]

Keady became the winningest coach in school history with 512 victories and second winningest coach in Big Ten Conference history, only behind former rival, Bob Knight, and was the Big Ten Coach of the Year seven times.

Man, that's almost as good as manning face.

[ponyscott]

He's never been known as a 'face jock'...